Haddock gave me a couple of tips when working with etch brass, 1) put a thin coat of Klear where it's going then when dry put a dab on the part you want to fit and bring the two together. Once all dry then touch up with CA. 2) cut the tip off the eye end of a needle to form a prong to take the CA. Needless to say I haven't mastered either yet!!! I like the tip about placing the needle in an old brish handle and like you I use an angled cocktail stick for placing little parts. Great work so far.

Your filling and sanding is a masterclass in itself. I rarely get it as smooth as you.

Oh, this will the Sukhoi design bureau spinning!!!!!!

I enjoyed making this kit, even if it was fiddly at times (for me at anyrate!!).

Coming along nicely.

As long as it's not PQ 17 you'll be ok. If it is then you should see my BV 138 anytime soon!!!!!

Did you ask Chris W for permission before starting this build? He has club franchise you know.

Tracy and I have seen this ship, she's docked at Pier 35 in San Francisco and is part of the Maritime Museum. Oh it's big in real life!!

It's a retired airframe Kev being repurposed.

Building has 'flip-flopped' between the launch trolley, the piloted a/c and the missile. The latter has been painted Xtracrylc RLM 74 Graugrun and Vallejo RLM 75 Grauviolett above with the same company's RLM 78 Hellblau underneath. The covered over pilot's area is Tamiya Buff with a wash of Citadel Seraphim Sepia to represent the wood.
The launch trolley was, as mentioned online, a task to put together, one person gave up and used the one from the Revell He 162 Mistel!! The instructions are vague and there's no locating points for some of the parts. The main wheels come in two halves so there's been a lot of work on them and they and the support arms have very small locating points in the bogies. Trying to get two wheels and an arm into place was a bind so I went for glueing the two wheels in place then sanding down the locating pips on the arms and feeding them up through the bogey. I looked at the instructions many times to see which way they should fit and after commiting to glue found that the pads at the top faced the wrong way for the missile to sit on, so they'll have to be sanded!! With some of the smaller parts to still fit the complete assembly was painted using Xtracrylic and Vallejo Panzergrau. The wheels are Tamiya Rubber Black with a wash of Flory grey.
The etch cockpit for the piloted a/c has been built and painted but when fixed to one side of the fuselage it wasn't central and wouldn't reach the other side. Luckily I've managed to part it from said side and I've put some pads of scrap plastic to each fuselage side and I'll see how we go from there. The Walther rocket has been built and painting started.

Nice work on the base.

In my youth I heard a story about someone who didn't carry water into the mine but would drink from another person's so that person put some hydraulic fluid in their 'dudley'. You get the same effect but you're down a mine with no toilet!!!

Yes we'll done. I don't think I'd have the patience to fit that much etch onto such a small model.

A great colourful addition to the collection.

The katana looks like it's going to be interesting and the fan looks like a war one, tessen, not for keeping you cool.